Gastric zymogenic cells release enzyme precursors (zymogens) into the stomach to assist in the digestion of food. As the lining of the stomach is constantly being renewed, it is necessary to generate more of these specialized cells. Benjamin Capoccia and colleagues demonstrated that the ubiquitin ligase Mindbomb1 is required for the development of the secretory apparatus in zymogenic cells that allows them to secrete zymogens. Additionally, they found that loss of Mindbomb1 was an early event in the development of gastric metaplasia. The accompanying image shows immunostaining of gastric zymogenic cells to visualize gastric epithelial cell lineage markers.
After cell fate specification, differentiating cells must amplify the specific subcellular features required for their specialized function. How cells regulate such subcellular scaling is a fundamental unanswered question. Here, we show that the E3 ubiquitin ligase Mindbomb 1 (MIB1) is required for the apical secretory apparatus established by gastric zymogenic cells as they differentiate from their progenitors. When
Benjamin J. Capoccia, Ramon U. Jin, Young-Yun Kong, Richard M. Peek Jr., Matteo Fassan, Massimo Rugge, Jason C. Mills